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Monday, November 16, 2009

Buy Now, Sew Later

The cool weather of late autumn is almost a relief. The whirlwind of outdoor summer activity is over, and now I can shut myself up in the house for a whole day of crafting without feeling guilty about not taking advantage of the sunshine. It's been time for me to catch up on wedding gifts, baby gifts, and home decorating projects I've had on the back burner for months. One such project has been curtains for our bedroom. We've lived in this home for almost three years without any window coverings at all, which is the way I like it, given that trees provide a natural privacy screen on three sides of the house. The sun- and moonbeams have a way of stabbing us in the eyes, though, when we're trying to sleep, so we really needed curtains to filter the light.

I knew I wanted a simple lightweight muslin for the body of the curtain, with just an edging of patterned fabric. Probably six months ago I spent a day studying all of my favorite online fabric stores (more on that later) and decided on Alexander Henry's Granville-Briquetage for the patterned trim. Unfortunately, fabrics seem to cycle through stores almost as quickly as fashion, and by the time I was ready to buy and start sewing, the collection was no longer available through regular fabric retailers. With some perseverance I was able to purchase enough through Etsy. Note to self: Buy now, sew later.

I chose white muslin with a patchwork at the hemof two different colorways from the Alexander HenryGranville-Briquetage collection. Muslin is cheap,so I was able to make six large panels for very little money.Also, I love color and pattern, but I didn't wantthe curtains to overwhelm the room.